Polymeric implant materials are known. Thus, for example, acrylic-based bone cements are used. In particular, methyl methacrylate is used for the formation of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) bone cement.
High strengths can be achieved with bone cements of this type, so that they can also be used in orthopedics. However, acrylic-based bone cements also find use in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty.
For the most part, thermoplastics are used, thus materials that cannot be cross-linked or can be cross-linked only to a very small extent. In the case of cross-linking cements known in medical technology, there are indications that these have an essentially smaller biocompatibility. Such materials are therefore not usually used.
For the most part, an x-ray contrast agent is added to known bone cements. Zirconium oxide and barium oxide are widely used in practice as x-ray contrast agents. It has turned out that these materials, which are used in particulate form, frequently lead to inclusions of air. In addition, the metal particles that are partly present in a submicron size range may damage the surrounding tissue due to their cytotoxic effect. Finally, due to their abrasive effect, the metal particles can lead to abrasions on the contact surfaces and thus to the formation of free particles. As a rule, this abrasion acts very negatively on the surrounding tissue.